Abstract:

The present work arises from an educational innovation project that aimed to study the entrepreneurial skills of Bachelor and Master students in different engineering fields such as computer science, computer systems, aerospace, or agronomy. We wanted to delve into the detail of which are these skills and/or abilities from the very moment that we don’t know the starting situation of this type of student, as supposed far from entrepreneurial intentions. All of them were united by the fact that, in one way or another, they had gone through different learning experiences where gamification, the prize as a way of educational evaluation or even serious games had been used.

A survey has been carried out that analyses the different aspects of entrepreneurship within this type of university education. The specific profile of engineering studies has been reviewed to compare them with the intentions of university students in general. This is one of the originalities of our work, the fact that we dedicate the research effort to a specific cohort. Moreover, it is also original that the European Framework of Entrepreneurial Competences (EntreComp), which is not yet commonly used in this type of study.

Few investigations have had this benchmark of entrepreneurial skills applied in Europe that allows entrepreneurship to be raised to a key skill in learning in all its stages and throughout the life of citizens. We have tried to fulfil one of EntreComp's goals, creating added value to our research. We have applied the reference framework and thus we have been able to support the new educational practices that are being carried out in the university environment with different degrees of success such as gamification, serious games, service learning, among others.

Emphasis has also been placed on the reasons for the birth of the entrepreneurial vocation for this specific group during their training, trying to explain the usual low rate of entrepreneurs who attend these studies. A point of special attention in our work has been dedicated to the role of women in STEM studies and their relationship with their entrepreneurial vocation, finding interesting results.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurship skills, gamification, entrepreneurial profile, engineering students, EntreComp.